SANTA ANA – Placentia’s former financial-services manager pleaded not guilty on Friday to felony charges for allegedly embezzling $4.3 million from the cash-strapped city.

Michael Minh Nguyen, 34, of Irvine faces 17 counts of misappropriation of public funds and was being held in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $4.3 million bail.

He was due back in court on June 17 for a pre-trial hearing, his attorney Rudolph Loewenstein said Friday.

Nguyen, the former No. 2 in the city’s Finance Department, had access to city accounts and kept Placentia’s financial ledgers.

Between April 22, 2015, and April 12, 2016, prosecutors said Nguyen made 17 wire transfers from a Placentia account to several personal accounts. Nguyen, arrested on April 13, was accused of concealing the embezzlement by altering the financial ledgers.

The District Attorney’s Office is trying to determine if money was mishandled prior to April 2015, and whether anyone else was involved, prosecutors said.

If convicted, Nguyen faces a maximum sentence of 29 years in state prison and a fine of $8.6 million.

Kelly Puente covers courts and criminal justice for the Register. She has worked as a journalist since 2006 covering everything from education to crime and breaking news. Kelly previously worked at the Long Beach Press-Telegram before joining the Register in 2013.